Chapter 2

Chapter 2

He sat on the highest rock that allowed him to see the peaks of distant mountains. The valley bottoms, much lower, were still covered in clouds that resembled cotton flakes, each time shaken by gusts of low winds. The sun that was already rising in the east illuminated the summits of the western mountains, making their snowy peaks reverberate. Xiang shifted position on the rock so that he could keep his back on it. As was so often the case that morning he had woken up earlier than the others and to let them sleep had left the camp in the upward direction his sister had indicated the night before; once on the trail, he walked for about half until he reached the elevated location where he was.

His mind began to navigate the events that had occurred since the rescue in the suddenly grown riverbed. After setting up the tents and having for dinner what had been saved of food, they went to bed listening to the rain falling on the tops of the tall trees, almost without reaching the ground as it was absorbed by the leaves, which allowed them to pass the night without getting wet. The fire crackled between the tents and every so often he had to go out and get more firewood to keep it burning; the object was not only to warm their numb bodies but to scare away possible wild beasts that might inhabit the forest. Although they had not seen any, they knew from accounts that predators go hunting at night.

At a level lower than where the camp was, the river still full of muddy water ran with a dull background noise with splashes every time a trunk uprooted in the highest course of the channel succeeded in passing by.

The young man fell into a state of pleasant sleepiness as he sensed the first rays of the sun warm his body and face. He did not know how long he was in that sleep until suddenly he woke up when the sixth sense indicated that he was not alone. He opened his eyes and when he turned his head he saw Aylen sitting next to him, also looking at the valley that was discovering its clouds. The girl's company was especially attractive for reasons that were not entirely clear to him.

"Have you been here for a long time?" Asked the young man.

“No more than ten minutes. It is pleasant to stay in this place, ventilated and with a beautiful view.”

“What about the others?”

“Jean Luc is looking for what he can use to prepare a breakfast. Your sister is still sleeping.”

“I still haven't thanked you and Jean Luc for saving us yesterday from the flood.”

“The truth is that we have saved each other, we all contributed in some way in the rescue.”

They remained silent for a while until Aylen asked worried.

“What are we going to do to get food? What we had is over.”

“Luckily we have plenty of water, the rest must be obtained from the forest.”

“How? Collecting plants?”

“Partly. But we must resort to the means we have.”

“What means?”

“The little crossbow with its darts.”

“But it's little more than a toy. It is designed for target shooting only.”

“I do not think so. With it we can hunt birds and small rodents, enough to feed us until we meet the rest of the expedition. We also have a fishing line with three hooks.”

“Will it be enough to feed four people?”

“It will have to be.”

When they returned to the camp, Meiling had just woken up, possibly due to hunger, and Jean Luc had prepared a tea with a biscuit to share with everyone. The ingestion of the hot liquid served to tune up the bodies and finish shaking the girl's sleepiness.

Sitting around the fire that had been fed with some dry branches, the four companions began to discuss their situation, always taking the precaution of not loading the ink on the precariousness of the same so as not to scare Meiling unnecessarily. Jean Luc asked the essential question:

“How we will do to regain contact with our companions of the excursion? We don't know where they are and we don't really know where we are.”

Taking advantage of the fact that his sister had left to go to explore the contours of the camp, which could now be seen without the blanket of fog from the previous night, Xiang put the situation crudely.

“We really don't even know if the rest of the group could survive the alluvium. We had parted half an hour before the flood and we don't know if they were also in the dry riverbed like us.”

Seeing the sad faces produced by his comment he decided to soften it with an addition.

“In reality as far as we know they had not descended to the riverbed, but rather were climbing higher to have a better view.”

“If our companions are well, as we can imagine, at this point they will have noticed that we are missing after the flood and will be looking for us.” Aylen replied.

"In any case we are in a place where no one will look for us, because we have strayed far from our path when the water rose." Xiang added realistically. "We have to make our own search to resume contact.”

“And what can we do being in this impenetrable forest, surrounded by towering trees?” Aylen asked in a voice broken by tears.

“First of all, look for a high point and leave signs of our passage there.” Answered Xiang. “A place like where we were a while ago.”

The international excursion started with good perspectives twenty days before had been organized with adequate communication and security elements. The purpose was to visit a chosen sector of the yungas of South America. The yungas, also called cloud forests or high altitude jungles, are part of an eco-region that extends over the eastern slope of the Andes, with a center in Peru and reaching intermittently from Colombia to the north to Bolivia and Argentina to the south. The altitude of these forests is variable with minimums of eighteen hundred feet above sea level to nine thousand. In the lower parts it consists of dense forests not too different from those of the Amazon jungle, while the highest parts have a thinned vegetation. The climate also depends on the altitude, but in general it is very rainy, foggy and tropical to the north of South America, with great daily variations in temperature in the areas of higher altitude; the rains oscillate between 1000 and 3000 millimeters a year, which constitutes a very high figure. In this way, the cloud forests accumulate an enormous reserve of water that then through a dense network of rivers goes down the slopes, being the greatest water contribution to the Amazon and River Plate basins. That is why it is a fundamental zone for the ecological balance of South America and in reality of the world.

The flora also depends on the altitude, but the closed forests predominate, with trees and bushes intertwined by lianas that make it impenetrable, with a huge variety of plants. The fauna is also made up of a large number of species, including large birds and various mammals, such as monkeys, foxes, coatis, peccaries and the fearsome jaguar or yaguarete.

Xiang looked satisfied with what he had achieved. They had returned to the high point where they had previously been with Aylen and after clearing the area of the thickets they carefully placed on the white rock a series of large black stones with which they had written SOS, the international request for help.

“What do you think? How does it look?” Asked Jean Luc.

“The important thing is how it looks from the air.” Xiang replied. “That is, if it is visible from an airplane or helicopter that passes at a certain height. In short, for the moment it is all we can do, let us trust that it will serve for something.”

Returning to the camp Xiang saw that his sister was at a distance from it, kneeling on the ground and observing something on the ground.

"What are you looking at?" He asked.

“The movements of ants. Look how they carry small pieces and leaves and twigs to the anthill they are building next to that tree.”

“It's what they always do. Why are you so interested?”

“They are in this wasteland just like us, and they are solving their survival after having to escape from the dry river bed, just like us.”

“Do you think we can learn something from them?”

“We already have, when we were in the dry bed they warned us that something was about to happen. It was the first alarm that we had to evacuate the place.”

The young man smiled while he was thoughtful for what seemed to him an original thought of the girl, which continued saying.

“Look at how the antennas of the ants in the caravan touch each other. The ant that goes ahead guides the following ones that have their antennae resting on it.”

“Have you never seen them before?”

“Not in such a long line and with such clarity.”

What Meiling had just discovered was one of the communication mechanisms of social insects; tactile communication through physical contact between two insects, allowing everyone to follow the leader.

"It's the same as when we tried to get out of the riverbed and you took me by the hand." Said Meiling naively.

Xiang knelt beside his sister and looked at what she was pointing at. Tender, he stroked her head as he marveled at the girl's observation power. It would not be the last time.